Jaune Arc, Master-Of-Arms Remake
by lxXxJerBearxXxl
Summary: As a child, Jaune had hoped to find a weapon he could use with some adequacy to live up to his family's name. Unfortunately it seemed as though he was destined to fail with each and every attempt. His last hope lies within Beacon, a school made to train warriors. He knows he's out of his league, but it was worth a shot.
1. Chapter 1

**This is a message to all of the people who supported me on this rewrite. I cannot express how surprised I was when I got a ton of reviews conveying your support. I also took some ideas into account, which were very helpful.**

 **However, I cannot promise a regular schedule like some people wanted. I've got enough stuff going on as it is.**

 **And for all of the people who are new to this fic and don't know that this is a rewrite, enjoy reading!**

Jaune knew his skill with a blade, or any weapon rather, were less than exceptional. He just chose to repress that fact until now, because at this moment he was wandering through a forest scared out of his mind with a girl who held herself with such confidence that he was afraid of what would happen if he pissed her off. She had speared him out of the air for crying out loud! That kind of thing doesn't just happen with sheer luck.

Coming from a family of war heroes, one would think that the coming heir would have been cleaving away at Grimm and criminals alike before they even had their birth age reach double digits. Jaune, however, was an unfortunate exception.

During his childhood, his father would attempt to train him with a different weapon every year, and with each year a test was held. The results were not promising.

He had tried to use a spear, and ended up holding it too low and impaling the ground and performing a pseudo pole vault. He was hospitalized for two weeks.

He had tried archery, and by some instance of horrible luck, the arrow defied physics by ricocheting off of multiple objects. The arrow finally landed near Jaune's head, who had fallen to the ground due to the slight recoil of the bow.

He tried using a two-handed axe, and ended up spinning with the swing and somehow getting motion sickness. The elder Arc sighed as that persistent hereditary trait seemed to remain in his own child.

He couldn't even lift up a mace for more than a minute without dropping it on his own foot.

It had gotten so bad that his father had nearly given up, but there was one last thing that he could try, and the elder arc nearly smacked himself since he had forgotten such an important weapon.

He had forgotten about his own weapon combination, the sword and shield. The kind of weapon that he had great experience with and could bestow some of it to his son. This probably should've been the first thing to try and teach Jaune to use, but too late now. This was the last resort. If he couldn't get his own son and heir to wield even a sword and shield, the very weapon he is uses on a regular basis, he'd never hear the end of it from his drinking buddies!

For one last, desperate year, the elder arc tried his best to get his son to wield a standard sword and shield with at least some finesse and skill. He made his son go through various drills and exercises in a vain attempt to instill some last minute proficiency into his child before having to apply him for a combat school before he becomes too old. Surprisingly, the sword and shield was the first weapon that Jaune hadn't managed to hurt himself with. That still wasn't a huge improvement, but it was something.

After sending the applications, the elder Arc began seeing a sudden influx on acceptance letters. However, all of these letters requested that they see the Arc boy in action, which was something that the elder Arc knew wouldn't end well.

Even knowing this sort of thing wouldn't end well, the elder Arc filled himself and his son with false hope each time they entered a new acceptance test, and each test ended the same. Some of the administrators even had to repress laughter with how bad Jaune had performed.

Seeing his father even more crestfallen than himself drove Jaune to take extreme measures, which he was sure would bite him in the ass later. It took a lot of self-arguing, but he eventually brought himself to go to a darker side of his town. He needed information before he could make his move. He would make his father and ancestors proud.

After several weeks on nightly visits to his town's ghetto area, he was able to decipher the location of someone who was eligibly good at forging transcripts as well as other things. Using nearly all of his own savings, Jaune hired the man to make him transcripts that would get him into the best somewhat local academy, Beacon Academy. It sickened him to do so, but his goal would be achieved, one way or another.

Spending one last night with his family, all of whom were none the wiser, Jaune waited until his family was asleep before he quietly tip toed over to the case that held Crocea Mors. Jaune had only seen the ancestral blade and scabbard a few times before, mainly because his father had never sparred with him with a non-training weapon. As he gripped the blue handle of the sheathed blade he felt the weight of his guilt even before he officially committed the act of theft against his own family, but he pushed on, and soon he was aboard a ship heading to vale with nothing but the clothes and armor he wore and the weapon clipped to his waist.

Nothing truly eventful had happened after that, unless you count throwing up on a girl's shoe, watching a girl explode, hitting on an heiress and a celebrity at the same time, getting speared to a locker by said celebrity, and getting launched into a forest full of creatures of darkness.

Yeah, not very eventful.

Which led him to where he was now. Thankfully, and surprisingly, he was basically rescued from his free fall by the same spear that had already punctured a hole in the hood of his hoodie. The spear managed to snag him by that same hole that it made from the locker room and pinned him to a tree. Either this girl was really lucky, or really accurate. Jaune didn't know which was scarier.

As Jaune hung high above the ground, his feeling of inadequacy crept back up. This moment of peace finally gave him a chance to think about the choice he had made, and the people he had probably hurt in the process. He was surprised that the weight of his own guilt and sorrow didn't bring him back to the ground.

He repressed these feelings when he saw the heiress from earlier arrive from out of the bushes nearby. They exchanged eye contact, and she scoffed and quickly went back in the direction she had appeared from. He sighed dishearteningly as he watched her disappear in the thick foliage. Jaune had attempted to wrench the spear out from the tree so he could get back to the ground, but the head of the spear was embedded so deep his feeble strength wasn't enough to escape.

So he just remained there, hanging, until he heard another large bush shuffle about. Jaune eyed the bush curiously, and to his surprise the celebrity Pyrrha Nikos emerged from the dense shrubbery. She only had her shield with her for obvious reasons, and she didn't even have it drawn. She had just traversed the dangerous forest without her weapon just for him.

Jaune didn't bother to question it… yet, as she had saved him from a possibly grisly fate. Death by lack of landing strategy didn't sound too good in his opinion.

After exchanging some friendly banter, Pyrrha retrieved her weapon and Jaune was back on his feet. This led him to where he was now, jumping at every noise whilst his partner remained cool as a cucumber. Jaune was so focused on the sounds he was hearing that he hadn't even been focusing on his surroundings, mainly to what was directly in front of him.

Before he knew it, he was on the ground, courtesy of Pyrrha and a branch she pushed herself past.

"I'm sorry!" Pyrrha exclaimed apologetically, presenting her hand to him in an effort to help him up.

"No worries." Jaune replied easily, waving off her apology. It was mostly his fault after all. Jaune winced as he felt a stinging sensation on his cheek. Knowing exactly what the feeling was, Jaune followed up with, "It's just a scratch." Jaune grasped her offered hand and hoisted himself up.

Letting go of his gloved hand, Pyrrha looked at his cut strangely, and just when Jaune was about to voice his discomfort Pyrrha spoke.

"Why hasn't your aura healed you yet?" Pyrrha asked, stepping a foot closer.

"My what?" Jaune asked dumbly.

"Your aura." Pyrrha stated this time.

"Gesundheit." Jaune replied cheekily. He honestly had no idea what she was referring to.

"Jaune, do you… know what aura is?" Pyrrha asked patiently and calmly.

Jaune snorted in fake disbelief, "Of course I do. Uh… do you know what aura is?" Jaune asked, hoping she'd take the childish bait to help educate him without looking like an idiot. Although Jaune wanted to smack himself for even thinking that such a thing would work, he kept his somewhat confident façade up. No sense in backing down now right?

Pyrrha, of course, saw right through this for multiple reasons. The biggest one is that aura automatically activates and Jaune's terrible poker face, but she decided to go along with it and educate her partner a little. She had expected something like this to happen with him after all, "Aura is the manifestation of our soul. It bears our burdens and shields our hearts. Have you ever felt like you were being watched without knowing that someone was there?" Pyrrha asked in a teacher-like tone.

Jaune had to actually think about this one for a moment, "Uh… yeah." Jaune answered. This was actually true. He had felt this whenever he had been training to the point of near exhaustion. It was like a motivating force of sorts. He felt like he wanted to impress the person or whatever watching him. Now it actually made sense.

Pyrrha started to slowly walk around him, her emerald eyes still remained on Jaune's own deep blue ones, "With practice, our aura can become our shield. Everyone has it, even animals."

Jaune's body followed the direction Pyrrha was walking in. "What about monsters?" Jaune quickly asked. He didn't want to think about Grimm having weird shields. That was just a scary thought.

"No, the monsters we fight lack a soul. They are creatures of Grimm. The manifestation of hatred. They are the darkness and we are the light." Pyrrha said, finally turning away from him.

"Right, that's why we fight them." Jaune confirmed.

"It's not about why, it's about knowing. Understanding both dark and light helps us manifest our aura. Everyone has some of both. By bearing your soul outwards as a force. All of our tools and equipment are conduits for aura. You project your soul and yourself when fighting." Pyrrha verified.

Jaune took a moment to take all of this information in, before blurting out the first thing that came to his mind, "It's like a force field!" Jaune exclaimed excitedly.

Pyrrha turned to face him once more, her smile full of humor, "Yes, if you want to look at it that way."

Pyrrha strode up to Jaune, once again uncomfortably close to him. "Now, close your eyes and concentrate." She requested as she brought a hand to his head, gently caressing it.

"Um… okay." Jaune said uneasily as he complied with her wishes.

"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality…" Pyrrha began calmly, starting the incantation. Jaune started to feel a little bit of a tug from somewhere in his chest. It wasn't uncomfortable, it was actually kind of comforting.

Suddenly, Jaune wasn't in the forest. He wasn't sure how he knew due to his closed eyes, but something felt different. He refused to open his eyes or break his wavering concentration. He could faintly hear Pyrrha's voice, but it calmed him somewhat even though the words were currently unintelligible. If it wasn't for her distant voice, he would've broken her concentration already.

He really hoped that Pyrrha would finish whatever she was doing soon, because he was starting to feel a burning feeling in his right hand. He still refused to open his eyes, but the burning wouldn't go away. In fact, it was really hurting him right now! It was like someone was stabbing his hand with a hot branding iron. He swore he could feel his skin start to reform as quickly as it burned, which made the pain feel consistently like fresh skin was being burnt instead of just remaining burnt.

Finally, sweet relief was found when he stopped hearing Pyrrha's voice. Feeling that he could finally open his eyes, he opened his eyes to see that he was back in the forest with Pyrrha hunched over in front of him. Her breathing was labored and her face was slightly pale.

Despite feeling the lingering hot feeling on his hand, his concern was solely on Pyrrha. "Pyrrha, are you okay?" Jaune asked, standing close in case she needed to be caught. She looked like she was about to pass out from overexertion.

Pyrrha took one last breath before standing straight, smiling brightly. "I used my aura to unlock yours. Now the energy that protects you is your own." Pyrrha watched as the cut faded away from Jaune's face in a matter of seconds, "You have a lot of it." She complimented.

Jaune stared at his own hands in awe of this new revelation. His hands seemed to have a faint white glow to them. If he had to describe it with one word, it would be angelic.

Much to Jaune's disappointment, the glow faded away and unbeknownst to him so did the pain in his hand. He hadn't even thought to inspect his recently burning appendage.

"How do I make it come back out? That was cool!" Jaune asked eagerly, wanting to see the glow once again. The glow gave him a feeling that he hadn't felt in a while.

Hope.

With its healing property, shielding property, offensive property, and with Pyrrha of all people saying he had a lot of it made him think that he may actually have a chance as a hunter. Just a chance was all he wanted, and it was better than what he had before coming to Beacon.

Pyrrha chuckled at his enthusiasm, "Unfortunately you would need training in order to use your aura for anything besides an automatic shield and healing factor. It takes some people several years to even start to make progress with aura." Pyrrha stated, unknowingly crushing some of Jaune's hopes.

"Oh." Jaune simply said, his voice dripping with hints of sadness.

Pyrrha quickly picked up on this, "B-but maybe that won't be the case for you. Most of the people who have a difficult time training with aura just have small amount so they can't get an effective amount of training time in before they exhaust themselves. You, however, have an astounding amount. It should only take a few weeks for someone like you to reach an acceptable level of aura prowess." Pyrrha said encouragingly.

Jaune looked back up and stared at Pyrrha for a moment, before recomposing himself.

"Thanks Pyrrha. I'm glad you were the one who pinned me to a tree." Jaune said good-naturedly. Pyrrha smiled and nodded in agreement.

"I certainly don't regret my decision." Pyrrha replied easily, wiping any remaining sweat from her brow.

'You probably will later.' Jaune thought with self-doubt. For his credit he didn't allow these feelings to show.

"We should probably get moving. Initiation isn't exactly going to stop for us." Pyrrha suggested, to which Jaune was instantly on board with. He was already eager to just finish this initiation one way or another.

* * *

Jaune didn't know what was worse, screaming like a girl in front of his partner, or panicking whilst hanging from the tail of a large Grimm which was also happening in front of his partner.

No wait, he found something worse. Getting thrown by a flick of the Grimm's tail, while screaming like a girl and in front of his partner.

He had hoped to impress her by making torches to explore a dark, damp, scary looking cave. Even though Pyrrha commented on how this cave seemed dangerous, his mind was made up. He had to show some worth to his partner, no matter how miniscule.

Well, some impression he had made. He was sure this whole ordeal now gave him negative points in Pyrrha's book of partners. He would have to remember to try and score some brownie points to get back at her good side. That is, if he even survived this fall.

As some miraculous luck would have it, he was heading in a straight line towards some cushiony looking trees, but any time Jaune gets good luck he also gets bad luck.

For some reason beyond his understanding, he had managed to slam right into the side of someone. While this did slow him down a little bit, the collision still hurt. Only a few seconds later did Jaune find himself with his foot caught in between two large branches. He was sure the momentum from his launch would've torn his foot off, but he only felt a sharp pain for a couple of seconds. Was this what aura can really do.

From his dangling position, he saw what appeared to be two girls standing by the ruins that he was supposed to find, a dead ursa, a guy in green panting by the dead ursa, and a orange haired girl that was singing or something. It's hard to tell with the ringing in his ear.

He also saw Ruby, not more than two feet away from him. That must've been what he had hit in midair.

Jaune deliberately coughed to get her attention, and once he had it he followed up with, "Hey Ruby."

Before Ruby could respond, Pyrrha burst in through the tree line on the opposite side of the field from where Jaune. Following close behind her was the oversized scorpion-like Grimm. He was glad she was still alive, but he also felt bad that he couldn't help her.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha called out, focusing more on his well-being than her own at the moment.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune called back, swinging his body slightly to get a better look at the situation.

"Whoa!" Ruby exclaimed with a faint amount of excitement brewing in her voice. Without looking back at Jaune, she took off to join the fray.

"Ruby!" Jaune called out helplessly, holding out his hands in a desperate attempt to get her attention for just a moment. She could just him down it like five seconds!

Jaune, thinking of a quick means of freedom, swung himself so he could grab onto the two branches for leverage. Using what muscular strength he possessed, he pushed against the clamp that they had on his foot. After a few wiggles and somewhat strong pushes, his foot was released from the clutches of nature.

Dropping down to the think branch Ruby had previously been perched on, Jaune took a moment to catch his breath. Within that moment, he lost it again.

He saw Weiss, his now first crush, falling from the sky.

He could compare such a scene to an angel descending from heaven itself, to a graceful snowflake floating to the ground. Like a…

Oh crap she's falling.

Thinking fast and eager to talk to his crush again, Jaune leapt from the tree with his arms outstretched. Weiss softly landed within his secure grasp. Remembering the book that Jaune had borrowed from is dad, the blonde decided that now was a perfect time to pull out a one liner from _How-To Pick Up Huntresses._

"Just dropping in?" Jaune asked with as much masculinity as he could muster while sporting his most confident smile. That smile faded almost instantly once he realized what he had actually just done.

Jaune descended unnaturally fast and plummeted to the ground within seconds. He landed face-down and without Weiss in his arms. Two negatives did now equal a positive in this case.

Or maybe they did, for Wiess at least. She landed right onto his back, smiling slightly when she heard his pained groan.

"My hero." Weiss sarcastically said, looking at her nails apathetically.

"My back." Jaune gurgled out. He was sure there was at least SOME internal bleeding. Good thing he had aura! He had to be running out of it at this point though, right?

Even after Weiss removed herself from her seat, Jaune remained still and waited for the pain to go away. The sharp flare of pain dulled down to an extreme discomfort in only a few seconds but it wasn't enough to move just yet. Which was unfortunate because he saw Ruby, pinned by her hood by an oversized feather and right in front of an angry Deathstalker.

"Ruby!" Jaune called out, attempting to push himself up, but the pain came back. He watched in horror as the Deathstalker raised its massive stinger with the intent to impale the small girl. Yang ran towards her sister, but was blocked off by a volley of feathers, courtesy of another Grimm.

"Dammit!" Jaune yelled through gritted teeth, now he was finally on his feet, albeit barely, but it wasn't nearly enough. He'd need super speed in order to even get over there. Even if he had such a thing, what could he even do? He doubted blocking with his shield would deflect the whole attack, and he couldn't possibly deflect it with his sword.

Rescue came in the form of an unexpected wall of ice, and a slightly more expected Weiss Schnee.

Jaune couldn't tell what they were saying, but they didn't have a ton of time. The wall of ice only had the Deathstalker's tail frozen, but not the rest of its body. Eventually it will hack away at the ice with its claws.

Finally able to move normally due to the healing properties of his aura, Jaune ran over to the rest of the young fighters. He was thankful that no real harm had come to any of them.

Yang rushed past Jaune, her mind only on her sister. Jaune continued to run until he was face to face with his partner once more. His breathing was only slightly labored from the long stretch of a run over.

"You okay?" Juane asked worriedly. She had been alone with a Deathstalker after all.

"I'm fine Jaune, but what able you? You did get thrown into the air." Pyrrha asked, scanning him up and down to see if there were any obvious injuries.

"Don't worry, turns out this aura stuff really does heal injuries!" Jaune said with a wide smile. Pyrrha couldn't help but reciprocate the smile, although it was more easily restrained.

* * *

After everyone regrouped, they had collectively decided to choose the 'run and live' option, which Juane was completely fine with. Once they each grabbed a relic, they ran towards the direction of Beacon, but almost instantly ran into a problem.

The Nevermore, an avian Grimm, had wings. Feeble humans did not.

The Nevermore soared past the running teenagers and perched itself atop a large stone spire. Everyone took cover behind a series of pillars that were lined up quite a ways from the avian Grimm. Jaune drew his blade and expanded his shield to prep himself for the fight that he was no doubt about to take place in.

That was when things got weird for Jaune. Jaune felt a pulse in his right hand, and a familiar burning feeling came back. The feeling was not nearly as strong as the first time, but it was still undeniably there.

Only a millisecond after this occurred, he felt a flood of information force itself into Jaune's brain. It wasn't unpleasant, in fact it was quite the opposite. It felt… really good. Like injecting some sort of stimulant or listening to a crowd of people cheer for you or taking the first bite of Fruity Juice Gum!

Yeah, kinda like that.

Bottom line is, Juane felt like he was on cloud nine, but he didn't have time to ponder this feeling or the information that he was being given all of the sudden because the Deathstalker that they had left behind was quickly advancing on them.

"Oh man, run!" Jaune called out, collapsing his shield and clipping it to his side while also sheathing his sword. All of this happened in one fluid motion, unlike other times he's done this.

As soon as his hand left the handle of his sword, every one of the new anomalies stopped. He paused for the briefest of moments, but snapped back into reality when He remembered what he was supposed to be doing.

Jaune ran alongside a few of the others, while Nora, Ren, Blake and Wiess remained behind. Jaune was worried, but this didn't last long as they were forced to retreat. Jaune heard his Pyrrha shout out, "Go, go!" and shift her sword/spear weapon into a rifle and fire at the Deathstalker. Jaune wanted to go against such an order, seeing as how they were headed for a bridge that was being propped up by thin pillars over a seemingly endless pit, but the Deathstalker was closing in. It would close off their escape within seconds.

Jaune's mind was moving a mile a minute. So there was a flying bird throwing feathers at them, a massive scorpion blocking off their way back to solid ground, and now they were on a narrow, crumbling bridge fleeing for their lives. How could this get worse?

As if to answer Jaune's question, the Nevermore flew straight into the bridge, completely obliterating the middle of it. Jaune was narrowly about to dive out of the way and land on one side of the bridge along with a few others.

Jaune looked to his right to count just how many people were on his side of the bridge, and added up five including himself. That means that the other three were hopefully on the other side unharmed.

Jaune stood up and looked to the other segmented part of the bridge, and thankfully the remaining three were on that side in one piece. Though Jaune could see that they were struggling with the Deathstalker.

"We gotta get over there!" Jaune said, hoping someone on his end could hear him.

"Let's do this!" Came the response of an Nora, grenade launcher in hand and an unnaturally serious expression on her face.

Jaune looked down to the black hole that lay beneath the broken bridge and swallowed nervously.

"Uh, I can't make that jump." Jaune admitted, taking a hesitant step back.

Nora stepped forward, now smiling manically, and struck Jaune in the chest. The blow sent him back a few feet, and Jaune didn't have enough time to stop her from what she was doing. Jaune could only watch in fear as Nora transformed her grenade launcher into a mighty war hammer and strike the edge of the bridge.

The force behind the hammer strike made the bridge act as a catapult for Jaune. Jaune was launched helplessly over the void below and was quickly followed by Nora, who launched herself with a well-placed explosive.

Jaune landed roughly, but recovered as quickly as possible. Jaune panicked for a brief moment when Nora tried to damage the Deathstalker using the momentum from her launch as a larger driving force. The hammer landed on the face plate of the Deathstalker, and in retaliation, the Deathstalker tried to stab Nora with its stinger. Nora used another explosive to push herself away quickly, but didn't take her surroundings into account and sent Blake over the bridge. The tail drove itself deep into the bridge, and the remnants of the bridge began to waver.

Before Jaune could call out her name, even though he didn't know it at the time, Blake recovered. Using her gun-blade as a grappling hook, she swung her way over to the Nevermore to assist the other fighters trying to shoot it out of the sky.

Jaune turned to face his new foe and equipped his weapons once more, and just like last time he felt the burning in his hands. Although now the burning had reduced itself to an almost nonexistent throb of pain. This was immediately followed by the rush of information, just like last time. Although he had no time to bask in the enraptured feeling due to the bridge finally collapsing from the Deathstalker retracting its tail. The last bit of stability that the bridge had retained had shattered, along with the fragile support beams that held the bridge up.

Jaune knew that they only had seconds to get back to solid ground before they were sent plummeting.

"We gotta move!" Jaune commanded with all of the confidence of a nervous commander. Though the other teens didn't need to know what to be told given the situation. They all rushed towards the Deathstalker, ready to use force to push past the gargantuan Grimm.

The first attack came from the Deathstalker in the form of its right claw. Pyrrha parried the blow easily with her shield and followed up with a swipe with her sword, knocking the claw off course. The second claw went to attack Pyrrha, but this time Jaune was the one blocking. Jaune, with some amazing stroke of luck or adrenaline, angled his shield in such a way that the claw began to slide across the top. Jaune didn't know how he knew that his next move was a good idea, but as the claw was directly over the center of his shield Jaune pushed upwards with strength he didn't know he possessed.

Once again, either luck or adrenaline.

This claw was also knocked off course, leaving the Deathstalker wide open. Well, except for the tail.

The Deathstalker saw that two more foes were approaching it and once again it attempted to stab them with its tail. Its target became the person in front, which was Ren.

Using his superior dexterity, Ren sidestepped just far enough to avoid getting impaled. Before the Deathstalker could retract its tail, Ren grabbed onto it and started to severe off the stinger with the small caliber rounds of his weapon.

Nora tried to assist her friend by firing multiple rounds at the face of the Deathstalker. Hoping to save its eyes, the Deathstalker brought its claws to shield itself, inadvertently attacking Jaune and Pyrrha. The Deathstalker also flicked its tail behind itself, sending Ren crashing into a stone pillar close by.

Both fighters brought up their shields, and were knocked back from the force. Much to Jaune's constant stream of surprise he was able to remain on his feet. He was even able to recover very quickly and was rushing at the Deathstalker once more. Jaune didn't register the red javelin flying past his head, but he definitely noticed the eye that the javelin had impaled. If his knowledge of basic bug anatomy was correct, then the spear should be lined right up at the Deathstalkers…

Deciding to take the risk, Jaune pushed himself to run faster. He needed more momentum if he wanted this to work. Jaune took advantage of the Deathstalker's pain induced flailing. It was leaving itself wide open for him.

Once he was within three feet of his target, Jaune pulled back his shield arm and twisted his hips. Like a tightly pulled string snapping, Jaune twisted back and threw out his shield bearing arm at the exposed end of Pyrrha's spear. The shield connected with resounding force, and drove the spear far deeper into the head of the Deathstalker. Jaune became annoyed when the Deathstalker didn't actually die like how he'd planned. The Deathstalker shrieked in agony and completely lost interest in its targets, all it was focusing on was the pain. Only a little bit of the handle was sticking out of the eye. Jaune hoped that Pyrrha would be able to get it back, but he was focusing a bit more on staying alive.

"Pyrrha, the tail!" Jaune called out, jumping back to avoid another claw swipe.

"Done," she called out as she threw her shield. The shield flew like a high-speed Frisbee and severed the remaining strands of meat from the stinger. The stinger landed right onto the Deathstalker's head, and impaled it slightly. While not enough to damage it, the stinger was still lodged in place for the time being.

Jaune crouched down low and raised his shield over his head, "Nora, nail it!" Jaune shouted, hoping she understood what he wanted.

Luckily she did, and after quickly warning Jaune of her approach, Jaune pushed Nora up with all of the force he could gather.

The grenade that she fired to push herself up as well as the power behind Jaune's push sent her into the air. Once she reached the maximum height she could obtain, she blew up another explosive to fire herself back down to the earth like a meteor. She used her built up momentum and own massive strength to smash her hammer into the stinger like a nail through a piece of wood.

The results worked too well, the Deathstalker died on immediate impact and the force behind the attack made the bridge act as a catapult again. This launched the remaining three hunters/huntresses-in-training over the Deathstalker and back onto the grassy field. The force also forced most of Pyrrha's spear out of the Deathstalker, and with a subtle usage of her semblance, she retrived her weapon while in midair.

Jaune, with a little bit of self-proclaimed luck, rolled and stabbed his shield and sword into the ground in order to stop his momentum. Nora landed on her rear, and Pyrrha rolled into a crouched position. All of this happened as the bridge collapsed, as did the mighty Grimm. It all seemed picturesque, until Ren came stumbling in with labored breath. After a few seconds of silence, he fell over exhausted.

Remembering the three hadn't seen the Nevermore or the people fighting it for a while, they stood up and scanned the sky. Well Nora and Pyrrha did, Jaune however backed up until he was out of their eyesight and quickly threw his shield off of his arm. Once he did so he yanked his right handed glove off to inspect the pain he was feeling. He hoped that it was just him imagining things.

Jaune's gasped at what he saw on the back of his hand.

There appeared to be symbols. He had no idea what the symbols could even mean, but he knew that they definitely weren't there before.

'What the hell is happening!' Jaune cried mentally in his head.

 **I apologize if there are spelling mistakes or anything like that. I've been trying to get this out forever, and I finally had some inspiration.**

 **Please let me know how I did. I think this take on the story will be a bit better and make more sense as chapters progress. Instead of learning about his semblance through convenient means, Jaune will be afraid of this right away, not knowing exactly what it is until later. He still doesn't even know what a semblance is.**


	2. New Classes, New Problems

**So this got popular way quicker than I thought it would, and that was from the first chapter!**

 **As I stated, there will be no set schedule for this. I just don't have that kind of time.**

 **Before I respond to reviews, I would like to point out that I am only taking the weapon mastery part of Familiar of Zero, nothing else. Jaune's personality won't change too much, if at all, and he won't have a talking sword and all that. I also switched where the symbol was, which is normally on the left hand. I switched it to the right because that's his sword wielding hand. Makes more sense to me.**

 **DT-Demon-Trigger- Jaune will definitely have more weapons, at least for temporary usage. I have a few ideas on how to he would get a multitude of long term weapons, but they all kinda lead to either overburdening or making him OP. Jaune himself will not change.**

 **Jax- Sorry, but no he won't have the lamp post.**

 **AVP- No, Jaune's personality is going to stay the same.**

"Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos and Lie Ren. You four retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forth, you four will be known as team JNPR. Led by, Jaune Arc!" Ozpin announced to the other students and staff that were observing the conclusion of the initiation ceremony. Those who resided in the room gave a respectful round of applause.

However, Jaune didn't hear anything past being given the role of leader of a team.

Why would such an intelligent man like Ozpin (At least he had assumed that the man was intelligent, being a headmaster and all.) chose such a klutz like himself as leader? He was sure to lead his own team to death before victory. Surely anyone else would be more suited for this role, like Ren. He seemed like the kind of person to remain calm in any situation, something Jaune was sure he couldn't do. And of course there was Pyrrha, and it goes without saying that she deserved to be leader. She's a reigning champion from some fancy tournament for crying out loud!

Hell, even Nora would probably make a better leader than him! Unlike him, she at least had legitimate combat experience. Though if she were leader, her plans would surely be unorthodox at the very least. Probably still better than what he could come up with.

So lost in thought, Jaune didn't even notice his new teammate's reactions to this announcement, which were varying degrees of happiness. The most obvious form of this happiness was Nora, who had captured Ren in a bear hug. In return, Ren stood stock still, but had a small smile on his face. Pyrrha was grinning proudly and looked over to Jaune. Without a word, she lightly punched his arm to show her congratulations to the blonde. Jaune, who hadn't been paying attention to his surroundings, took the punch and fell. When his rear landed onto the ground, he blinked away his thoughts and took in the situation. He had just embarrassed himself in front of most of the student body.

Great way to start the first official day of being a Beacon student.

* * *

"Wow, this is where we're supposed to stay for the next four years?" Jaune asked unnecessarily.

After the ceremony, the teams were assigned dorms. Coincidentally enough, team JNPR's dorms were located directly across from team RWBY's. Jaune was happy about this seeing has how the two groups seemed to get along easily enough. Working together in a life or death battle apparently substitutes for a good impromptu bonding experience.

Ren was the first one in the dorm room, wanting to sleep as soon as humanly possible. Nora was second, never far away from Ren. Jaune was third and Pyrrha brought up the rear and closed the door.

Upon first inspection, they each noticed that the room was fairly plain. Four beds lined up side by side, one bathroom, one window overlooking the courtyard and one work desk. Even the wallpaper was plain. There really wasn't plenty of room to personalize their space, but they'd have to live with it for now.

"As long as it had beds, I wouldn't care if we were roomed in a janitor's closet." Ren muffled through his pillow. At least the beds were somewhat comfortable, that was a huge plus in Ren's book. Even if he had been prepared to sleep on the stone slabs that were usually used as cushions for average dorm rooms, he would much rather be in a soft bed.

Choosing to take a bed closer to the wall, Jaune sat down near the foot of the bed on the far left. He let his shoulders finally relax and he let out a long, relieved breath. After falling over, Jaune had been as rigid as a stone to make up for the embarrassing experience he had suffered through. He had to repress a frown as people chuckled when they saw him in the hallway. Even if he looked silly walking so stiff he would not fall dammit!

Before sinking back into the comforting embrace of the mattress he sat upon, Jaune knew he had to get into proper sleep attire and brush his teeth. With a groan, he stood up and stretched. After a good five seconds, he let his arms slacken and headed for the bathroom with his one piece pajamas underneath his arm. He didn't care what people said about them, they were awesome. It also helped that they were a gift from one of his sisters for when he had failed at using a spear. Totally made up for that disappointment.

Claiming the bathroom first, much to the childish annoyance of Nora, Jaune proceeded with brushing his teeth. He wouldn't bother with a shower, he was too tired after all that he had done today. Brushing his teeth as quickly as he could, Jaune spit out the foamy paste and rinsed out his mouth.

Now for the clothes.

The first thing Jaune needed to do was remove his sword from his hip. He had forgotten to leave it in his assigned locker. He'd do it after school tomorrow, easy fix. Without thinking, Jaune grabbed his sword by its handle with his left hand and bringing his right hand fingers to disengage the clip. Upon grasping the blue handle of his sword, Jaune gasped as he felt the rush of power once more. It felt exactly the same as it did when he had drawn his weapon back in the forest.

Jaune quickly let go of his sword, not wanting to mess with something he still didn't understand yet. Slowly he grabbed the sheath of the sword in the middle. To his relief, he didn't feel the surge of power this time. He just felt normal, and that's how he wanted it to be for now.

Finally having his sword off of his hip, Jaune leaned the sword against the nearby wall, being careful not to touch the handle of the old blade. Jaune hastily removed his armor and clothes and slipped into his nightwear, the ever comfortable onesie.

Jaune exited the bathroom, his right hand holding Crocea Mors by its sheath and his armor and clothes tucked under his left arm. Stuffing his things underneath his bed, Jaune fell face first into his bed. The exhaustion of his day had finally hitting him with full force. Jaune rolled over to get into a better sleeping position and pulled the covers over his chest and left his arms outside of the sheet. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted his teammates all getting prepared to sleep in their own ways.

On the opposite side of the room Ren had actually fallen asleep already, or so it looked like to Jaune. His eyes were closed and his breathing was even. He was as still as a log. He didn't even bother to change out of his clothes or brush his teeth. It must have been a tiring day for him as well.

Nora was on the bed next to Ren, no surprise there. She had changed into her sleep clothes, which were a basic shirt with the word 'Boop' displayed on the front as well as soft looking pink and black pajama bottoms. She was resting her back against the headboard of her bed, reading a book and listening to music through a large pair of headphones. She apparently hadn't noticed that he was out of the bathroom yet.

Finally there was Pyrrha, who had entered the bathroom after Jaune. Jaune hadn't spoken much to his new partner, but he figured there would be plenty of time for that tomorrow and the days that would follow. He also noticed that there was only one empty bed left, which was only a foot or so away from his. Jaune connected the dots and blushed at the thought of sleeping so close to Pyrrha.

'Maybe I should suggest a different sleeping arrangement.' Jaune thought to himself. Shouldn't the order be something like himself, Ren, Nora, and finally Pyrrha? After all Nora and Ren had been friends before they even came to Beacon, so it would make way more sense to have them sleeping next to each other and separate himself and Pyrrha. They had only known each other for about a day. That made them practically strangers still, so wouldn't that be weird?

Pyrrha didn't seem to think so, as she graciously laid herself down onto her bed while Jaune was having a mini-mental breakdown.

"Are you alright Jaune?" Pyrrha asked, concerned about the slightly panicked look on Jaune's face. He appeared to be flustered and his gaze shifted from different parts of the room, sometimes his eyes landed on her own bed for whatever reason.

"Y-yeah, I'm alright. Just thinking about stuff. Don't worry about me!" Jaune replied nervously, now turning his head to face Pyrrha fully. This made things worse now that he was now seeing Pyrrha up close in her sleepwear. Even in an oversized tank top and sweat pants she was attractive, and way too close to his bed. It seemed that the bed was even closer than it was before. Man, his nervousness was really screwing with him now.

"I suppose that is to be expected. I have quite a bit on my mind as well. After all, we've made it into Beacon. It truly is quite the milestone." Pyrrha said, still looking at Jaune with a small smile. "By the way, I wanted to apologize for knocking you over earlier. It was not my intention to cause such humiliation." She finished, her guilt present for embarrassing him in front of a large portion of the student body.

Jaune saw how her smile fell somewhat, as if she had greatly disappointed him. Jaune turned over to his side to fully face her and rested his arm on the bed for balance. "No no no, that was my bad. I wasn't paying attention at all. I kinda froze up after the headmaster announced that I was going to be the leader of this team." Jaune hastily replied, hoping to ease her concerns. "I never really thought that I would actually be a leader."

Thankfully it worked. Her smile had grown once more, and even more so than before. "I told you that you would make a great leader." Pyrrha praised, causing Jaune to smile in return, "Well, we should probably get some sleep. It's going to be the first day of school tomorrow, after all." Pyrrha pointed out, yawning at the end of her sentence.

Unsurprisingly, Jaune yawned as well. The day had taken its toll on him as well. He just wanted to sleep and go through the new classes that he would take. "That does sound good." Jaune said, turning back to his back and closing his eyes.

"Goodnight Jaune." Pyrrha said as she rested her head on her pillow. Her eyes fluttering as soon as her head hit the fluffy cushion.

"Yeah, G'night." Jaune replied tiredly, and within a few minutes sleep finally took him. Completely forgetting why he was nervous about the sleeping arrangement in the first place.

* * *

The morning had been normal enough, except for almost being late for classes and having to sprint across the courtyard in order to make it to class on time. However, Jaune wished that they had arrived late. The current teacher was probably the most boring story teller on the face of Remnant. Weren't they supposed to learn something in classes? How was anyone supposed to learn in a class where the teacher just tells stories that are almost impossible to believe?

Things got even weirder when their teacher asked for a volunteer, and Weiss all too happily raised her hand. It didn't help Jaune's nerves when the Professor dragged in a cage as Weiss left to equip her combat gear. There was definitely something ferocious in that cage if the snarling was any indication. Jaune could almost feel the malice extruding from the metal cage.

Before his eyes a one on one battle between woman and Grimm was fought, and although a bit sloppy Weiss had claimed her victory. She didn't seem very happy about it though. Maybe it had something to do with Ruby? She did seem a bit peeved with her for some reason. She even yelled at Ruby during her fight when Ruby had actually given good advice.

Combat Class had an awful lack of combat. The entire class was just Glynda going over each and every tournament rule in the rulebook. He guessed that he should be thankful. The longer that he wouldn't have to fight, the better. He still wanted to figure out what was going on with him and his sword, at least, that's where he assumed the problem was coming from.

He didn't see much of Ruby throughout the day, even at lunch. Ruby seemed upset and stressed and Weiss was nowhere to be found. Ruby would deny how she felt, but Jaune knew different. As much as he wanted to it wasn't his place to interfere. Still, it hurt to see Ruby so depressed this early into the school year.

History Class was the last class he had to take, and Jaune could not express how hard it was to understand what the teacher was saying. He words could probably break the sound barrier with how fast they were coming out. It didn't help that Jaune was terrible at History. He was more of a Mathematics and English guy, even though his family had played a crucial part in the largest war ever recorded.

At long last was dinner, which was without team RWBY surprisingly enough. Well, Jaune didn't expect their team to be around his for every social gathering. Even without the extra company, it was still pleasant to dine with his team. Jaune thoroughly enjoyed learning more and more about his teammates. He had gotten Pyrrha to explain just what exactly the Mistral Tournament was, which made him even more impressed with her. He learned that Nora was the daughter of a blacksmith and Ren was well versed with medicinal herbs. Truly he had an interesting team.

Jaune frowned at the word, team. He didn't like referring to his new friends as his team, but referring to them as roommates didn't sound good either. Of course they were his friends, but they were also learning how to fight together, with him as the leader. He didn't think he would ever get used to being called a leader, even if it's only been a day.

* * *

After a few normal weeks, Jaune finally met a problem by the name of Cardin.

All of his morning classes were normal, with Port's class droning on and on until the sweet sound of the end of the class bell resounded throughout the classroom. The next few classes had nothing to significant happen, unless you count Nora creating some sort of volatile dust concoction in their Dust class. The next class though, is where things took a turn for the worse. Combat Class.

As Jaune and his team settled themselves into the seats of their class, Jaune couldn't shake the feeling in his gut that nothing was going to go his way today. If there was one thing that Jaune learned through his training with his father, it's that his gut feeling was usually right. Unfortunately for Jaune, today his gut would be right once more.

"Now students, today you will learn how tournament style one-on-one matches are formed." Glynda announced. All of the students fell silent in order to hear her. "The two combatants are chosen at random, as to not allow for much planning before the match. This is how the matches will go today."

Glynda instructed everyone to link their scrolls to their 'Combat Class' app so their information could be sent into the randomizer. After seeing the correct number of entrees, Glynda started the randomizer. Two roulette-like holograms appeared on the overhead board, cycling though the mass of students. After a few short seconds, the left roulette wheel started to slow down until it made a full stop onto the face of a large man with brown hair.

"It appears that this first match will be between Cardin Winchester and…" Glynda trailed off, directing everyone's attention back to the remaining roulette wheel. The students watched eagerly, hoping to get their chance to impress their peers or to just fight for the fun of it. Everyone watched as the roulette wheel made a full stop, presenting the face of a blonde youth. The eyes of every student roamed the room until they all eventually landed on the person who matched the description, Jaune Arc.

Jaune knew he wasn't a lucky person, but seriously, he had to be the first to fight someone? That was just ridiculous! He was the last person in the class that wanted to fight anyone, but now here he was, fully expected to fight in a match that he wasn't prepared for!

"Jaune Arc. If the two of you could please make your way to the arena and prepare yourselves." Glynda requested, but it was obviously a demand. Cardin was the first to stand, his posture cocky and imposing. His entire body sans his head seemed to be covered in thick armor and he wielded a rather intimidating mace, which he rested on his shoulder. Some people actually began to feel sorry for Cardin's opponent. Comparing the two, Cardin had width and height over Jaune. Not only that, but Jaune looked like he was about to leave the room.

Jaune's teammates shared concerned looks before looking to their leader. Before they could express any of these concerns, Jaune slowly stood up. His gaze rested on Cardin, and he swallowed nervously. His confidence seemed to drain from his body, and actually looked like Cardin was gaining confidence because of it. He must've noticed how panicked Jaune looked.

Simply wanting to get the duel over with, Jaune jogged down into the arena. Cardin had already made it to the large stage, the spotlights blinding the two students from the rest of the attentive eyes. Cardin didn't seem to be warming up in any way, completely confident in his chances to win.

Jaune wiped the sweat from his brow and drew his sword and shield combo. As he had already experienced, the rush flowed through his body. Not only did it give him information about using his weapons, but it also seemed to purge some of the doubt and anxiety from his body.

Jaune rolled his shoulders, took a few lazy practice swings, and stretched his legs. If he was going to fight, he might as well be prepared. Something this Cardin didn't seem to care about.

"Are the two of you ready?" Glynda asked, standing far off to the side, but still easily loud enough to be heard.

"As ready as I'll ever be." Jaune muttered with a nod, idly loosening and tightening his grip on the handle of Crocea Mors.

"I'm ready for my first easy win." Cardin declared confidently, not changing from his lax posture. The only change he seemed to make was that he was leaning on his left foot, ready to charge the second the match started.

"Seeing as how to two of you are prepared, let the match begin!" Glynda announced, raising the nearly invisibly shield around the arena to keep any collateral damage contained with the push of a button.

Cardin, instead of rushing his opponent like he had originally planned, decided to take the battle more casually. After all, he was fighting someone who clearly was already afraid of him. Why not play on that fear? It is a basic exploitation tactic after all.

Taking slow steps, Cardin made sure to make his footfalls heavy, as to be heard by his victim. Cardin grinned as he seemed to get the desired reaction out of Jaune. The blonde appeared to tense up and raise his shield to the point where Cardin could only see Jaune's eyes peering 'fearfully' at him. As if the scrawny blonde could think that the flimsy shield would stop the might of his crystal-embedded mace.

Cardin couldn't give off a degrading insult before something completely unexpected happened. Jaune charged at Cardin to meet the hulking berserker's slow advance. His shield never left his position, but Jaune rested the flat of his sword on the top of the shield, poised to strike.

Cardin didn't have enough time to assume a battle-ready stance as Jaune struck Cardin's chest with his shield, followed quickly by a slash of his sword across the same area that the shield had previously impacted. Cardin stumbled back, stunned by the fact that Jaune had moved so quick and the fact that he was able to strike him twice in a matter of seconds. Cardin quickly placed his mace in front of him, the fight now having his full attention. He was glad that Jaune hadn't pressed his advantage, or else he'd be in trouble.

Jaune had flowed seamlessly back into his original stance, shield raised and blade resting on the top. Internally Jaune was jumping for joy. He had actually struck a student, something he hadn't even dreamed of. Weird, empowering feeling coming from his weapon be damned, he felt great!

Cardin scowled, the more time that he had to think about it, the more furious it made him. How did this loser even hit him? Wasn't he scared of him? He certainly looked like he was mere moments ago. What had changed?

Knowing that he had basically embarrassed himself in front of his class and teacher, Cardin growled and leveled Jaune with a gaze that promised pain. Finally prepared to fight at full force, Cardin charged at Jaune with his mace raised up high in preparation for an overhead blow.

Jaune angled his shield to parry the blow instead to fully tanking it. Sparks flew as the mace and shield connected. Cardin's mace quickly slid down the shield and impacted the ground, trapping him for a moment. Quick to exploit Cardin's pause, Jaune spun around once to build up momentum and slashed at Cardin's head.

Thinking fast, Cardin leaned his head back, the blade passing within a hairs length from his nose. Unfortunately he didn't even see the shield that soon followed when he leaned forward again. Cardin nearly lost his grip on his weapon, but with a grunt he was able to remove it from his place in the floor. With his fury influencing his attacks, Cardin began to swing wildly, hoping to get at least a glancing blow. That's all it would really take to do a good deal of damage to someone Jaune's size.

Cardin couldn't believe that Jaune was dodging and parrying nearly every strike, and at the same time Jaune was also landing small hits whenever Cardin left himself exposed. Even if it was by a gradual pace, Cardin was losing aura, while Jaune was still full.

Having had enough, Cardin slammed his mace down hard while simultaneously activating the fire dust crystal that was fused into the top. Jaune was forced to stumble back due to the shockwave, leaving him open to the unexpected bout of fire that followed.

Being within such close proximity, Jaune was blown back several feet. Before he could get too far back, Jaune stabbed his sword into the ground to halt his momentum. Thankfully, it worked easily enough. Jaune looked back to his opponent, who was breathing heavily, and readied himself for another attack.

'That freaking hurt! I wish I had something like that.' Jaune thought jealously to himself. Shaking his head to rid the thoughts, Jaune crouched low. If Cardin was going to let loose another wave of flames, then he'd need to protect as much of his body as possible.

His prediction was correct, Cardin roared out once more, sending another large line of fire at Jaune. Jaune braced himself for the flames, and when they hit he was ready. He only skidded back a few inches, and his shield absorbed most of the attack's force.

Deciding to not let Cardin to that again, Jaune sprinted directly towards Cardin, forgoing prepared defense for a hasty attack. This seemed to pay off, because as Cardin raised his mace up again Jaune was already within range to attack him.

Jaune struck the large man's legs with two strong hits. While Cardin's aura absorbed the sharpness of the blade itself, the force behind the attacks forced his knees to shake. Cardin swung horizontally in order to get Jaune to back off, but Jaune crouched and used his shield to direct the blow away from him.

Cardin couldn't retract his weapon fast enough to defend himself against the series of slashes and shield bashes that seemed to flow smoothly in quick succession. Each hit seemed to always get under his armor, and with each blow he felt himself losing strength.

A loud ring echoed through the arena, causing Jaune to stop his relentless attack. Jaune seemed to blink back into focus, almost like he hadn't even noticed that he had been decimating Cardin a second ago.

"The winner is Jaune Arc!" Glynda announced, this statement was followed by respectful claps and cheers from his team as well as the sisters of team RWBY.

Jaune looked up from the panting Cardin to look up at the hologram that displayed his and Cardin's faces. Right below their portraits was their aura level. Cardin's had fallen into the red zone while, much to Jaune's surprise, Jaune's had stayed within the green. It looked like it had only just barely gotten down to three fourths of its original level.

'Wow, Pyrrha wasn't kidding when she said that I had a lot of aura.' Thought Jaune, impressed with the different between the aura of himself and Cardin. First he's suddenly good with his weapons after failing with them for so long and now this? This just kept getting better and better.

Glynda turned away from the arena to address the students. "As you can see, Mr. Winchester's aura has reached the red zone. In a tournament style dual, this would indicate that he is no longer fit for battle and therefore has lost the match." Glynda concluded, once more to the two students still in the arena.

"That was a good match gentleman." Glynda praised, before her gaze turned hard and disciplined, "Cardin, along with the fact that you completely underestimated your opponent, you need to work on your speed and strategy. Clearly charging in with nothing but muscle and armor didn't work out so well. Jaune, while your fighting style was more or less flawless, you didn't take certain chances that were clearly open to you." Glynda finished, allowing the two boys to mull over these new thoughts.

Well, Jaune was actually considering the advice while Cardin was brooding. He even threw Jaune a nasty look every so often.

"Now remember class, the Vital Festival is only a few weeks away. It won't be long before students from other kingdoms will be arriving in Vale. So keep practicing. Those who choose to participate in the combat tournament will be representing all of Vale." Glynda informed just before the end of the class bell rang throughout the room.

Jaune could see the varying reactions of his friends. Yang was excitedly punching the air, Weiss's fists began to shake as a wide smile sprouted onto her lips, and Ruby looked like she was going to explode. The only person who had a relatively normal reaction was Pyrrha. Her eyes never left the stage, and she really didn't seem as excited as everyone else.

'She's probably used to it, being a champion and all.' Jaune thought to himself, reverting his shield into its compact mode and sliding his sword in seamlessly. He felt the power and skill leave his body, as if they were a vague memory. It was really a strange feeling. Going from knowing so many stances and techniques to just… losing them. It almost felt like forgetting a dream, almost.

Jaune noticed that the students were leaving, along with his friends. He would have given chase immediately, but figured being a good sport came first.

"That was a good match Cardin." Jaune complimented with a smile, outstretching his hand for a handshake. Glynda remained behind to observe the interaction between the two, just in case one of them blew a fuse.

Cardin stared at Jaune's hand for a moment, until his eyes glanced over to Glynda. After several long seconds, Cardin didn't respond. He just walked past Jaune, making sure to bump his shoulder on the way out. Before he was out of hearing rang, Cardin whispered something to Jaune.

"You better watch yourself, Jauney Boy." Cardin warned, leaving the room empty sans Glynda and a shocked Jaune.

 **This was really hard to write. I tried to keep the times accurate, since the show references weeks going by even though it doesn't feel like it. My apologies if it's kinda bad.**

 **So Velvet…. I just want to say a few things. I was actually considering the 3D printer idea, but that seemed OP. Also just seeing the way that she fought with RWBY's weapons makes me believe that her semblance is to copy and mimic moves that she's seem. Either that or she is a god.**


	3. Bad Luck

**I've got some explaining to do. First, for anyone that reads my Naruto/Fairy Tale story 'Blessings,' I'd like you to know that ive been working on it on and off. But after typing around 6,000 words of it the chapter... got lost somehow. So I'm going to try and work that out, but just know that I plan to update it.**

 **Second, I am very lazy and procrastinate a lot. So my updating schedule is pretty terrible.**

 **The third statement will me on the bottom. I won't do review responses on this chapter, I might on the next chapter.**

While Jaune excelled in the combat portion of Beacon, he was still not academically up to speed with most of the classes. Seeing as how he had gone to any hunter prep schools he had little to no knowledge in most of the classes that were taught within Beacon.

He was still surprised with how well he was doing in the combat classes. He had only been in four actual matches, mostly because of the random odds of the roulette system, but he felt like Glynda was purposefully keeping him out of the ring as much as possible. He tried to downplay his own abilities, but whenever he held his sword and shield it was surprisingly difficult to not perform counters and parries. His only options were to surrender, or refuse to fight in the first place. The only problem with that was he wanted to get good grades so he wouldn't get removed from the school. Beacon only accepted the best after all.

He wanted to ask someone about it, but how to you ask someone why you are suddenly much better at wielding a weapon than you ever have been since being able to hold a weapon? Not only would they most likely question the legitimacy of his skills, but also they may question his transcripts. Neither of which were good options, so he opted to keep quiet.

He had narrowed down the possible reasons for his newfound abilities. He figured it was either his aura or Crocea Mors itself. The weird symbol had appeared on his hand when he had his aura unlocked, which was a huge clue. However, Crocea Mors is a tool of war that has seen combat for several years, and his great grandfather had never actually revealed what he had made the sword and shield combination out of. There was the rare possibility that he may only be this skilled with Crocea Mors and nothing else.

He was currently in the lunchroom eating with his team and team RWBY. He tried to keep up with the conversation, but he was distracted by something occurring at the other end of the cafeteria.

This event would be team CRDL harassing a rabbit faunus. After his match with Cardin, the large mace-wielder became quite aggressive towards others. Unfortunately, his main targets were timid faunus. He looked around the lunchroom and saw that most people were either ignoring what was happening, or purposefully looking away after glancing in the general direction of the blatant racism.

"I can't believe them. They're deplorable." Blake said with disdain. It seemed that she had noticed what was going on as well. Almost instantly, everyone at their table turned towards the harassment. Each set of eyes had a different look of annoyance or anger. Jaune looked around the table, but nobody appeared to be moving to stop the bullying any time soon.

"So are we not going to do something about this? That girl is clearly in pain." Jaune pointed out, his ire starting to rise even more. Back at his home this sort of treatment towards a faunus was not tolerated at all. Some of his closer friends were faunus, so seeing people ignoring this situation was starting to make him lose his respect for his fellow classmates.

"If she can't stand up for herself in a huntsman school, then she doesn't deserve to be here." Weiss answered bluntly, going back to filing her nails. She still looked a tad conflicted, but it appeared easy for her to ignore the issue at hand than it was for everyone else.

"While I would not have put it so… simply. She does have a point. We are training to fight monsters and even some criminals. If she can't stand up to bullies, then what might happen to her out in the field?" Ren stated. By no means was he racist, but he didn't quite approve of people who were too scared to defend themselves if they had the means to.

Jaune looked back and forth between his friends and the girl who CRDL still hadn't ignored. He knew it was probably a bad idea to get involved, but then again he beat Cardin in the arena. Perhaps he can use that to his advantage. Suddenly more confident about his decision Jaune stood up from the table, tuning out the warnings his friends gave him. He didn't care about some stupid unspoken rule about self-defense in Beacon. All he cared about was stopping someone from being hurt.

As Jaune got closer to where the rabbit faunus was, team CRDL noticed him. They each sent their glares towards him, but none was more intense than Cardin's. The hulking team turned away from the faunus in favor of the blond who humiliated him in the arena. His fists were clenched so hard he heard his own knuckles crack. If the blond punk thought that he was going to stop his fun, then he had another thing coming.

"What do you want, blondie? Can't you see that my team and I are busy?" Cardin asked, but his voice was anything but polite.

Jaune seemed a bit intimidated, but his resolve didn't waver. "Cardin, I want you to stop what you are doing. Can't you see that you're hurting her?" Jaune gestured towards the brown haired girl, who the remainder of team CRDL continued to harass, but only through gestures and words. Jaune could tell that they were watching the conversation closely.

"Oh? And what the hell are you going to do about it?" Cardin said, taking one step closer to Jaune. Jaune had to resist the urge to take a step back. Sweat started to form on the back of his neck.

'This isn't working at all! I thought he would be more intimidated since I beat him before. Maybe he needs a reminder.' Jaune decided, and at this point it was his only card left to play.

"Do you really need a repeat of what happened in the arena Cardin?" Jaune asked with as much confidence that he could muster. He made sure his back was straight and his eyes never left Cardin's. Cardin was still taller and wider than him, so Jaune had to look upwards. Not the best for intimidation.

"No, because it won't happen." Cardin simply responded. Before Jaune even knew it Cardin took a swing at Jaune. Jaune was able to dodge the first punch, but his eyes stayed on the outstretched fist for too long. Cardin's knee found its way into Jaune's stomach. Even with aura it made Jaune cough and hold his stomach. Jaune tried to ready himself to actually dodge the next attack, but Cardin was on upon him far faster than he had anticipated. Cardin kicked outwards and sent Jaune to the floor.

Jaune heard several gasps as this was going on. Someone yelled out to get a teacher, and Jaune could hear people running towards him and Cardin. Cardin loomed over him, a sneer on his face.

"Just as I thought. You're a damn coward without your sword and shield. I bet you were never trained to fight hand to hand." Cardin pointed out, but his observation was more accurate than he would ever possibly know. Cardin looked like he was about to take another swing at Jaune, and much to his dismay, Jaune clenched his eyes shut and held his arms in front of his face.

"Enough!" Pyrrha shouted, suddenly in front of him. Cardin took a step back in surprise at the intrusion. Not only did Pyrrha stand in front of Jaune, but so did the remainder of his team. Ren adopted his normal martial arts stance, ready for if Cardin or any of his team tried anything. While Pyrrha and Nora weren't armed, they both looked ready for a fight. Jaune felt multiple people behind him as well, and turned his head to see team RWBY standing behind him. Yang outstretched a hand to help him up. Jaune gladly took it.

"Pitiful. You have to hide behind your own team. You really are a coward." Cardin motioned at his team, and on command they fell in a messy line behind him. Almost like some sort of gang. Cardin was fine with pounding Jaune into the ground, but he was not as confident in dealing with the rest of his team. Also with teachers on the way he didn't want to stick around. They left with no opposition, but both of the teams surrounding Jaune watched them like hawks. They didn't remove their eyes from CRDL until they were each out of the cafeteria.

He would have tested either suspect, but he had been doing poorly in his other classes since day one. He had decided to spend most of his time into his studies and when the first break came around he would finally consider this weird phenomena.

His poor academics led him to where he was now, which was Oobleck's class. Doctor Oobleck focused heavily on The Faunus War. If Jaune recalled correctly it was because if Doctor Oobleck could teach them about mistakes made in the past, they would be able to prevent them in the future. Jaune wholeheartedly agreed in spirit, but his mind couldn't keep up with the speedy professor. That coupled with the stress of other classes meant Jaune was not doing well in this class.

Which was crappy for him, because Oobleck seemed to like calling onto Jaune for answers to his questions.

Jaune felt something wet hit the back of his neck. Upon moving his hand to the area he found a small, white, mushy sphere stuck to his neck. He has seen these before, and it wasn't hard to guess where it had come from.

Cardin had been messing with him since their fight. While Cardin never did anything too confrontational, he annoyed Jaune with small things. Firing spitballs at him during class was one of them. Others would include tripping him as soon as he walked into the door of a class, pressing the button of his shield so it would deploy in a doorway, and even 'accidentally' falling into Jaune. This fall had managed to shove him in his locker and fire him into the woods. Jaune had encountered a few Beowolves in the woods, but they were easily dispatched thanks to his ability.

Jaune never did anything about it because he felt that he wouldn't have to. Cardin focused more on him than anyone else, which Jaune was fine with since he didn't like the thought of others getting bullied. There was one incident where Cardin and his team were bullying a rabbit faunus. Jaune had stepped in, hoping that reminding Cardin of the results of their match would force him to back down.

The opposite happened. Cardin struck him hard enough to make him stumble back. Jaune's friends stood up to defend him, but teachers arrived on the scene before anything too major broke out. The damage had been done though. Cardin had identified that Jaune was weaker than him outside of the ring, which meant as long as Jaune didn't have an actual reason to use his weapon, Cardin would be able to bully Jaune just as easily as everyone else.

Back to the class, the motion of Jaune reaching to his neck must've looked like he wanted to answer Oobleck's next question. Jaune really should have seen that coming, and he wish he had been paying attention right now.

"What is the answer?" Oobleck asked Jaune with great anticipation. Jaune's eyes darted from side to side, hoping to all that was holy that some answer would appear and bail him out of this situation.

"Uh… the answer, right." Jaune started, "The advantage… the faunus had over that guy's stuff…" Jaune trailed off, not sure where to go. Jaune saw his light at the end of the tunnel in the form of Pyrrha. She was making a gesture with her hands in circles over her eyes. It kinda looked like…

"Binoculars!" Jaune exclaimed confidently, only to be met with laughter and Oobleck's look of disappointment.

"Very funny mister Arc," Oobleck scorned, before turning his attention to the other problem student of the class, "Cardin, perhaps you would like to share your thoughts on the subject?" Oobleck asked. Cardin seemed to be lounging in his seat, feet propped up against the desk.

"Well, I know it's a lot easier to train an animal than a soldier." Cardin responded, not a shred of subtly with his racism towards the Faunus.

Pyrrha retorted almost immediately, "You aren't the most open minded of individuals are you Cardin?" Pyrrha said with almost well-hidden disdain. Her eyes were squinted with scrutiny. Cardin didn't seem intimidated.

"What, you got a problem?" He challenged heatedly.

"No, I have the answer." Pyrrha said instead, not caring enough to challenge Cardin verbally head on in the middle of class. It wasn't worth it. "It's night vision, many Faunus are known to have nearly perfect sight in the dark."

Cardin grunted, but didn't respond otherwise.

Blake followed up with her own input. Jaune noticed that Blake knew a lot about The Faunus War. "General Lagune was inexperienced and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep. His massive army was outmatched and the general was captured." Blake concluded. Jaune actually felt jealous of all of the impressed stares that she was receiving.

Blake wanted to get her own insult towards Cardin, so her next words worked well for that. "Perhaps if the general had paid attention in class, he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure."

Hearing the students give their stereotypical 'ooo's was pretty funny, but Jaune was worried for Blake when Cardin moved to stand up. Thankfully Oobleck was quick to tell Cardin to sit back down.

Jaune had to laugh at Cardin's predicament, but as always this landed him in hot water with Oobleck. Oobleck made Jaune and Cardin stay after class to address the issue with the two of them. Jaune wanted to admit that he was very stressed and he was trying to pay attention in class, but Oobleck was not giving him a chance to speak. Oobleck quickly wrapped up their session by assigning them additional readings and an essay for next class.

Jaune walked out of the classroom slowly, only to fall over as Cardin shoved him to the ground. That had been the most aggressive that he's been so far. Cardin must be testing his boundaries with what he could get away with involving Jaune.

Cardin left without a word, and Jaune was quickly helped up by Pyrrha. He hadn't expected her to wait for him, but it was certainly nice of her to.

"You know, I really will break his legs." Pyrrha said in a serious manner. Jaune didn't think she would, but the sentiment was there.

"Thanks, but don't worry about it." Jaune tried to end the conversation there, but Pyrrha wasn't having it.

"Why don't you stand up to him? You've proven yourself in the ring. I know that you can make him leave you alone." Pyrrha stated with upmost confidence. That only made Jaune feel worse. In a way he felt like he was leading her on. Not in a romantic sense, but in the way that you tell a lie to someone because the truth hurts, but you drag out the lie more and more until it eventually blows up in your face.

"I'm sorry… I just…" Jaune tried to force out, but his words failed him. He wanted to tell her something, anything to relieve just a bit of his guilt, but then he remembered that he was in a crowded hallway. His eyes darted from side to side nervously, as if someone was going to read his thoughts and yell them out to the world.

Pyrrha seemed to catch on to Jaune's strife, because she suddenly grabbed his hand and proceeded to drag him off with a predetermined location with a smile on her face. Jaune didn't resist, mainly because he wanted to be anywhere else at the moment.

Even though Jaune felt terrible in more ways than one, he couldn't help but admire the view that this little rooftop provided. Before his very eyes stood a merging of architecture and nature. The marble arches overlapping beautiful trees only became more tranquil underneath the glow of the shattered moon overhead. This scene before him allowed him some piece of mind, before he was reminded why he was here in the first place, and who led him here.

"Pyrrha, I appreciate that you pulled me away from the crowd, but I really don't want to talk about this." Jaune insisted, having trouble actually looking her in her emerald eyes. It made it even harder since she still looked supportive of him and cared about him. He had a feeling that was going to change soon.

"Jaune, whatever this is I can tell it goes deeper than Cardin." Pyrrha remarked slowly. Jaune's eyes widened just a bit, but it was all Pyrrha needed to push further with this conversation, "It is hard for most people to notice, but I'm your partner. It's my job to look out for you, whether it be on the battlefield or in Beacon."

Jaune felt his heart ache even more. Here was Pyrrha Nikos, tournament champion several years running, top of their class in nearly every aspect, the Invincible Girl, looking out and caring for a boy with dreams of being a hero, but using deceitful methods to get what he wants. He didn't deserve such a friend and partner.

"Jaune… don't you trust me?" Pyrrha knew that was a harsh card to play against Jaune. Guilt tripping isn't a highly regarded means of getting what you need, but Jaune needed to let this issue out. Only then could they deal with it as a team.

"Of course I do!" Jaune shouted hoarsely, "You have been the greatest partner a guy could ask for. It's just," Jaune took a deep breath to calm his nerves.

"I'm not the person you think I am."

Pyrrha didn't move closer yet, she kept her distance knowing that Jaune was going to be guarded about this. This was a step in the right direction though, but Pyrrha had a bad feeling about it, " What do you mean?" Pyrrha asked, eager to get to the bottom of this.

Jaune looked at the ground, and slowly back to her, "I'm not Jaune Arc, huntsman in training. I'm Jaune Arc, a fraud and a liar." Jaune swiftly turned to face the lovely scenery again, fists tightly clenched.

Now that threw Pyrrha for a loop, "How can you say that? Jaune, you're a phenomenal warrior and have shown that you have the mind of a tactician in the making. You made it into Beacon, and that speaks volumes of your worth as a huntsman in training."

"That's the point!" Jaune shouted once more, although this time he sounded far angrier. Pyrrha realized that this anger was directed towards himself. "I didn't make it into Beacon. I lied, okay! I got my hands on fake transcripts, and I lied!" Although lately he felt more confident in the information that the fake transcripts provided, it still made him feel like he doesn't deserve to be where he was today.

"…What?" Pyrrah muttered, her hands slowly traveling to cover her ajar mouth. "You… didn't enter through standard means? But why?"

"Because I was never good enough. I was homeschooled by my father, who was a hunter." Jaune started to explain, "I tried so hard, but failed at every turn. The only thing I even had remote talent with was my sword and shield, and even that I had to steal!"

"But… you're such an excellent warrior! You have yet to lose in Combat Class." Pyrrha pointed out. She slowly inched her way towards Jaune. Right when she was about to grab his shoulder to comfort him he retreated.

"Beginner's luck, good karma for all the crap I've dealt with up until now, I don't know! All I know is… is that I don't belong here." Jaune muttered. Jaune turned away from Pyrrha, not wanting to look at her anymore. She had been nothing but helpful and comforting up until this point, and he didn't deserve it.

"Pyrrha, please. Just leave me alone."

Pyrrha tried opening her mouth to say something, anything that would help, but she was sure that would only upset Jaune more. Perhaps he needed space for now.

"All right, just don't think too poorly about yourself. You may have entered through illegitimate means, but you are more of a hunter than you realize." Pyrrha said, hoping that Jaune would turn to face her once more, but he wouldn't budge. After waiting a full minute Pyrrha finally sighed and took this as her queue to leave.

Once Jaune heard the door leading up to the rooftop shut, he sighed and turned to face the door. He truly didn't want her to leave, but he was unsure of what he was supposed to do. He knew that he had the ability to fight, but he was the last person to deserve it. He had no skill leading up to this point, and if he had to guess he probably didn't practice as hard and as often as other students at Beacon.

As if Jaune's mood couldn't get any worse, he heard the one voice that started this internal struggle.

"Well, I guess I was wrong about you Jauney Boy." The voice of Cardin was heard from behind Jaune, where the ledge was. Jaune whipped his head around in disbelief only to see Cardin climbing up from the ledge, a dark smile etched across his face. "You are quite the little law breaker. Obtaining forged transcripts for a school that you don't deserve to be in. You've said so yourself."

"Cardin please don't tell anyone. If you tell any of the teachers, they could have me arrested!" Jaune pleaded to the bully. Jaune could practically feel his life crashing down around him. Much to Jaune's surprise, Cardin started to laugh.

Cardin wrapped his large arm around Jaune's neck with more constriction than necessary for a gesture like this, "Now why would I do that to a friend? Am I so heartless in your eyes Jauney? I'm hurt." Cardin said sarcastically, "No, I won't rat you out. That's not the kind of person I am."

"You… you won't tell anyone?" Jaune whispered, desperate hope filling his mind.

"Of course not. Think of it as a favor to a friend," Cardin said with a grin. Cardin rapped his knuckles against Jaune's skull, much to the blonde's displeasure.

"However," It was with this one word that made Jaune remember who he was dealing with, a bully, "Friends need to return favors, and since this secret of yours is pretty big I think that entitles me to multiple favors. What do you say?" Cardin asked, knowing he had Jaune wrapped around his finger.

"What do you want me to do?" Jaune asked in defeat. If there was a term for being between a rock and a hard place while your hands were tied and you were slowly drowning, Jaune was sure he would have used it to describe his dread right now.

"I'm glad you asked. You see, my boys and I have been swamped lately with homework, especially with this trip to Forever Fall coming up. I'm sure you have time on your hands, so if you would be so kind as to help us get caught up and continue to keep up?" Cardin asked, his arm tightening ever so slightly around Jaune's neck.

"Okay… is that it?" Jaune wanted to smack himself as he said that, because Cardin's smile got even larger, and a dark chuckle grumbled in his throat.

"Oh no, there's one more thing. Any fight that you are involved with in Combat Class you are going to intentionally lose, especially against anyone from my team. Can't have you hogging all of the glory." Cardin finally released Jaune, but not before shoving him to the ground. "You and everyone else need to know your place, trash."

With that final statement, Cardin climbed back down to his open dorm window, leaving Jaune alone on the roof once more.

"Damn it… I knew my lie would catch up to me eventually."

 **Not much going on with this chapter for the amount of time I spent on it huh? Yeah I had a hard time even getting this chapter to go anywhere. I swear the next chapter will have a lot more going for it.**


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